Working with primary schools and corporate businesses, echo digitalcreative assists its clients in making the most from digital platforms. Passionate about education, Director Steve Axiotes met up with us in the co-working space to discuss why an online presence is essential for the education sector.

“We help schools create a digital identity,” explains Steve. “This involves everything from designing their website, setting them up on social media, creating short films and digital signage, and even developing unique mobile-friendly apps.”

After working with over 20 schools on a range of digital projects, Steve is excited to launch his latest project with Hunmanby Primary School near Filey: “They’ve got a new nursery group called Humanbeehive. We’ve already organised logo design, updated their Digital Signage and redesigned the website, which now includes social media feeds for not only the school, but also integrating Twitter in the class environment for real time communication.”

Steve has joined forces with fellow C4DI members to produce solutions for several clients: “Digital designer Scott Paffley, AKA madebyibloo, has delivered a lot of the creative work involved. Meanwhile, we allocated the job of filming aerial shots of the schools to the guys at OctoVision Media. Our digital film is now in production, to be used across all kinds of cloud-based environments.”

“It has been great for me to integrate and collaborate with other members. My business is dependent on relationships with other companies, and here at the C4DI I have a pool of talent to draw from,” he enthuses.

So why do primary schools need a strong digital identity?

“Nowadays everything is digital, and the future of technology is mobile, so it’s great that schools want to move in this direction,” Steve explains.

Thanks to the websites and apps that echo digitalcreative develops, parents have all the information they need right at their fingertips. The individual mobile apps have notifications for school closures and events, and parents can even access the latest newsletter – very useful if your child forgets to pass important documents on.

“The mobile apps also have buttons that instantly call the school, or redirect you so that you can email them,” Steve adds.

A strong and responsive digital presence is crucial to attracting new pupils to schools and making everything run smoothly. A great example is the integrated GPS map, allowing parents to find out exactly how long the daily school run will be.

“My aim is to make everything as accessible and simple as possible” Steve emphasises. “If it takes more than three clicks to access a piece of content, we go back to the drawing board.” Meanwhile, the filmography and digital signage in which echo digitalcreative specialises offers a glimpse of a school’s character and culture.

The creative consultancy makes it just as easy for teachers and members of staff: “For one of our schools, each class has its own Twitter page that parents can access. Teachers can quickly snap a photo of a class trip and upload it instantly, without having to worry about learning how the main website works.”

For teachers who may want to dip a toe into the world of tech, Steve offers a solution: “We have mentors that visit schools to train staff in coding and digital disciplines. We’re adding new mentors to the portfolio regularly as it’s proving fascinating and very valuable, so we highly recommend setting up a session.”

From digital media workshops to classroom management, find out how echo digitalcreative is helping schools to make the most of technology.